Scientists at Europe’s CERN research center have finally revealed their latest results regarding the search for the Higgs boson particle, a.k.a. “God particle,” during a conference in Melbourne at midnight on July 4.

By smashing proton particles together at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, two teams of researchers from the European Organization for Nuclear Research concluded the existence of a new subatomic particle that appears to be the sought-after Higgs boson.

As the missing piece to the Standard Model that describes the make-up of the universe, The Higgs boson, one of the most massive particles in the universe, is said to provide the key to understanding the Big Bang theory and how the universe gained mass. It is yet to be determined whether this newly discovered particle is exactly the one described by the Model.

Edinburgh University’s theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, now 83, was one of six theorists who proposed the existence of the particle nearly 50 years ago. Scientists are feeling quite certain that Higgs’ own imagined particle will be confirmed in his lifetime.

John Ellis, theoretical physicist, answers the questions “What is the Higgs boson?” and “Are we close to discovering the Higgs Boson and why is it so difficult to find it?” in preparation of the Press Conference following the scientific seminar announcing results of the searches for the Higgs boson on July 4 2012:

“Higgs” in now trending on Twitter Worldwide, with Topsy.com reporting over 24,000 mentions in the past day, with tweeps also jesting about the fact that Comic Sans was the chosen font for CERN’s official presentation.